COLUMBUS, Miss.— On March 23, as part of The W’s Homecoming celebration, the Forum Series hosted by the Gordy Honors College will feature poet Jeanie Thompson.

An award-winning author of seven volumes of poetry, Thompson will read from her most recent book “The Myth of Water: Poems from the Life of Helen Keller,” a cycle of thirty-four poems written in Keller’s voice.

Based on Keller’s journals and letters and offering in-depth biographical anecdotes and insight into her emotional awakening, the poems trace Keller’s journey from rural Alabama to the international stage while living with a double disability.

Randall Horton, former visiting faculty in The W’s MFA in Creative Writing program, says of “The Myth of Water,” “Midway through this collection the reader will begin to see the world through Keller’s eyes, not the darkness but the everlasting light.”

Since 1993, Jeanie has directed the Alabama Writers' Forum, which promotes writers and writing and supports literary arts education. Its award-winning Writing Our Stories program has provided creative writing instruction for at-risk youth since 1997. Thompson also teaches in the Spalding University low-residency MFA Writing Program.

This event is free and open to the community and begins at 6 p.m. in Nissan Auditorium. For more information, contact Kim Whitehead, Director of the Honors College, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 662-241-6850, or visit http://web.muw.edu/honors/forum.